so you go to angie's list, minute yelp or some other customer review site, but can you trust the first thing that pops on your screen as being the best? news4's tisha thompson shows us why some businesses say it's all about the money. >> reporter: customer review sites offering honest to goodness opinions written by real customers, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. but how big a part does money play? >> i'm a firm believer that, you know, you have to earn where you rank. >> rami is the owner of a plumbing company in sterling, virginia. >> everything i check sd pretty positive reviews. >> reporter: he znts understand why angie's list places his company eight pages in below companies with lower grades until he got a call from angie's list asking him to advertise on their site. >> it was in excess of $50,000 to be ranked above companies that had lower rankings than we did. >> no company can pay to be on angie's list. >> reporter: the founder angie hicks says it's true, advertisers get better placement on the website. but, she says, they have to make the grade. >> only "a" or "b"